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Freitag, 29. August 2014

In one of the advertising "newspapers" (you know, the ones you get, if you have a store-card for the supermarket etc.) there was an article about a lady who creates knitted food installations. The article is available online (in german).

I apologize that all the links are to german-speaking webpages, but really like the idea - and I like her knitting philosophy as expressed in the article: "[Stricken ...] helfe, ein Trauma zu verarbeiten, und tue auch Depressiven gut. Am
besten sei Stricken ohne eigentlichen Zweck, .... Wenn man wie sie ohne Muster oder Vorlage arbeitet und
sich das Objekt einfach vorstellt, fokussiert sich der Geist aufs
innere Bild und lässt schlechte Gedanken vorbeiziehen."
Roughly translated: "Knitting helps to coping with trauma and is even good for depressive people. The best is knitting without a purpose ... When one works like her without patterns and just imagines the object, the mind focuses on an inner picture and lets bad thoughts disappear."

Techniques
Aside from knit stitches, all you need to know is how to knit short rows. Currently, my favorite technique are "German short rows": when you turn, bring yarn to the front and pull it back so that a sort of "double-stitch" is created, then knit back as usual - when you have to knit the double-stitch, be careful to knit it as one stitch (see also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6n561SMZXQ); this method has the advantage the no picking up of stitches is necessary. In the pattern, this stitch will be called t+p (turn and pull).
Here's a video that shows how to work double stitches in garter stitch: http://youtu.be/PsBkXPmjgaE

Instructions

With 3mm needles CO10.

Set-up wedge (3mm needles):
Generally in 3mm-wedges, rows are shortened by 4 sts, i.e. each row is 4 sts shorter than the one before.
Row 1 (RS): k to end
Row 2 (WS): k to end
Row 3 (RS): k to 3 sts before end (i.e. there are still 3 stitches on your left-hand needle), t+p (=turn and pull, see Techniques section)
Row 4 (WS): k to end
Row 5 (RS): k to 4 sts before last double stitch; t+p
Row 6 (WS): k to end
Row 7 (RS): k to end
Row 8 (WS): k to end
Row 9 (RS): k to end
Switch to 6mm needles

6mm-Wedge (6mm needles)
Generally in 6mm-wedges, rows are shortened by 3 sts, i.e. each row is 3 sts shorter than the one before.
Row 1 (WS): k to end
Row 2 (RS): k to end
Row 3 (WS): k to 2 before end t+p
Row 4 (RS): k to end
Row 5 (WS): k to 3 before last double-stitch t+p
Row 6 (RS): k to end
Repeat rows 5 and 6 until there are 3 sts or less on the row back (RS row)
Knit 3 rows - switch to 3mm needles

3mm-Wedge (3mm needles) - Increasing
During the increasing part, at the beginning of a 3mm wedge each 6th sts is doubled.
Row 1 (RS): * k5 kfb repeat from * until there are 5 sts or less left, k to end
Row 2 (WS): k to end
Row 3 (RS): k to 3 before end t+p
Row 4 (WS): k to end
Row 5 (RS): k to 4 before last double-stitch t+p
Row 6 (WS): k to end
Repeat rows 5 and 6 until there are 4 sts or less on the row back (WS row)
Knit 3 rows - switch to 6mm needles

Repeat 6mm-wegde and 3mm-wegde (increasing) 11 times (i.e. you have 12 3mm-wedges and 11 6mm-wedges)

Knit another 6mm-wedge

3mm-Wedge (3mm-needles) - Neutral
Row 1 (RS): * k5 kfb repeat from * until there are 5 sts or less left, k to end
Row 2 (WS): k to end
Row 3 (RS): k to 3 before end t+p
Row 4 (WS): k to end
Row 5 (RS): k to 4 before last double-stitch t+p
Row 6 (WS): k to end
Repeat rows 5 and 6 until there are 4 sts or less on the row back (WS row)
Knit 2 rows
Last row (RS): *k 5 ssk repeat from * until there are 5 sts or less left, k to end
Switch to 6mm needles

6mm-Wedge (6mm needles) (No change to the increasing part)
Row 1 (WS): k to end
Row 2 (RS): k to end
Row 3 (WS): k to 2 before end t+p
Row 4 (RS): k to end
Row 5 (WS): k to 3 before last double-stitch t+p
Row 6 (RS): k to end
Repeat rows 5 and 6 until there are 3 sts or less on the row back (RS row)
Knit 3 rows - switch to 3mm needles

3mm Wedge (knitted with 3mm needles) - Decreasing
During the decreasing part, at the end of a 3mm wedge each 7 sts are reduced to 6.
Row 1 (RS): k
Row 2 (WS): k to end
Row 3 (RS): k to 3 before end t+p
Row 4 (WS): k to end
Row 5 (RS): k to 4 before last double-stitch t+p
Row 6 (WS): k to end
Repeat rows 5 and 6 until there are 4 sts or less on the row back (WS row)
Knit 2 rows,
Last row: *k 5 ssk repeat from * until there are 5 sts or less left, k to end
Switch to 6mm needles

Repeat 6mm-wedge and 3mm-wedge (decreasing) until there are only 10 stitches on your needles.
Knit one more 6mm-wedge

3mm Wedge (knitted with 3mm needles) - Last Wedge
Row 1 (RS): k
Row 2 (WS): k to end
Row 3 (RS): k to 3 before end t+p
Row 4 (WS): k to end
Row 5 (RS): k to 4 before last double-stitch t+p
Row 6 (WS): k to end
Repeat rows 5 and 6 until there are 4 sts or less on the row back (WS row)
Knit 2 rows,
Last row: bind off loosely

Weave in ends and block.

If you follow the instructions above, your stitch count will increase up to the neutral wedge as well as the number of rows per wedge - afterwards both will decrease. The table on the right lists the number of stitches and ridges that should appear.

Samstag, 2. August 2014

This slim elegant scarf is made from one skein of fingering weight yarn. It's easy to knit - the pattern consists of only 8 rows to repeat. The wave pattern is achieved by stacks of short rows - with an offset of two stitches for each row. "Wellengang" is the german word for sea state or swell.

German short rows: when you turn, bring yarn to the front and pull it back so that a sort of double-stitch is created, then knit back as usual - when you have to knit the double-stitch, be careful to knit it as one stitch (see also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6n561SMZXQ); this method has the advantage the no picking up of stitches is necessary. In the pattern, this stitch will be called t+p (turn and pull). For purposes of this pattern, this pulled stitch will NOT be counted after turning.

Drop Stitches/Elongated Stitches: In the first row insert the right hand needle into the next stitch and wrap the yarn around it 3 times - in the next row drop all your extra wraps, i.e. only knit one stitch per three wraps. Here are some YouTube videos that show this technique see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_PtbMLkty4 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN0sbky-3IE)I personally prefer the method of doing yarn overs (2 yo's in case of this pattern) inbetween the stitches - the result is the same. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video in English for this - this one is in German: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqcnTlwYzTQ

Since both sides look the same, it may be helpful to mark the RS.

Notations: Since I'm lazy, I will use the following abbreviations - please note that this refers to the current knitting direction, i.e. on RS M2+1 is a different stitch than on WS.

"k to M2+1" means: nit to M2 and then k1

"k to M2-4" means: knit to four stitches before M2

Instructions

CO52
Set-up row: k6 pm (this marker will be called M5) k10 pm (this marker will be called M4) k10 pm (this marker will be called M3) k10 pm (this marker will be called M2) k10 pm (this marker will be called M1) k6

(WS) k to end
(RS) k to M1+1, t+p
(WS) k to end
(RS) k to M1+3, t+p
(WS) k to end
(RS) k to M1+5, t+p
(WS) k to end
(RS) k to M1+7, t+p
(WS) k to end
(RS) k to M1+9, t+p
(WS) k to end
(RS) k to M1+11 (i.e. to M2+1), t+p
(WS) k to end;